Municipal Leaders Urge More Participation on Capitol Hill, FCC

The FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee made 12 recommendations over the past year in the interests of consumer protection and the needs of state, local and tribal governments, said committee member Gary Resnick, mayor of Wilton Manors, Fla. The committee in 2012 recommended that rights of way and citing issues be used cooperatively and that the capacity of broadband infrastructure projects be extended by sharing, he said. The IAC issued recommendations to make carrier-of-last-resort obligations necessary for IP services and for a consumer protection focus on the IP trials, he said. IAC submitted a recommendation on Verizon’s Communications Act Section 214 application to the FCC to discontinue its wireline service to Fire Island, N.Y., and the New Jersey barrier islands because the IAC wanted to “protect the needs of the consumer rather than the provider who wants to discontinue the services,” said Resnick. The IAC encouraged the FCC to force companies to include digital literacy and broadband deployment initiatives in their merger-and-acquisition plans, and it recommended that grants be awarded to public and private entities, he said.

In the committee’s interactions with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, Resnick said Wheeler realizes that it’s important to work with all stakeholders, including local governments. “The IP transition is very high on his list [along with] the need to promote competition, growth, innovation and the network compact,” said Resnick. With the network compact, there are fundamental values that consumers have come to expect, he said. The compact is that consumers’ calls will go through, that there will be consumer protections and public safety, and affordable access to services, and that those things will continue during the IP transition, he said. Problems related to the existing taxes and franchise fees could also be exacerbated by the IP transition, said Resnick. “We flagged this for the FCC to give more consideration as it gets more developed."

Four bills were also debated on Capitol Hill this year that would affect taxes in municipalities, said Barrie Tabin Berger, Government Finance Officers Association assistant director-federal liaison center. The Marketplace Fairness Act, Digital Goods and Services Act, Permanent Tax Freedom Act and Wireless Tax Fairness Act could all have far-reaching implications if passed by both chambers, said Berger. The Digital Goods and Services Act introduces preemption measures and it’s not supported by municipalities, she said. “Every letter that we send in opposition says we are opposed to preemption in local tax authority.” This bill would block multiple and discriminatory taxes on digital goods and services even though there’s no “concrete evidence” of the practice and the Internet Tax Freedom Act already bans such taxation, she said. Gridlock is keeping Congress from moving forward with taxation measures, said Berger. “People do not want to move forward on anything because they want to focus on the president’s healthcare initiative,” she said. “There is a lot of movement on [the] House side, but not the Senate, which could change” when Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., steps down, said Berger.

FirstNet has made significant progress over the past year despite claims on the process is moving too slowly or too fast, said Barry Fraser, Bay Area Regional Interoperable Communications System Authority general manager. FirstNet is collecting information from the states to develop implementation plans to present to each state’s governor, said Fraser, NATOA’s public safety chairman. “The State and Local Implementation Grant Program has gone forward to help with the process, and states have made points of contact for FirstNet over the past year.” Fraser said he’s “pleasantly surprised” on the progress of FirstNet with hiring a general manager, staff positions, creating a budget, issuing requests for information, setting up a Public Safety Advisory Committee and finishing spectrum lease negotiations with two of NTIA’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program recipients.

Concerns remain as to whether the $7 billion allocated for FirstNet through the incentive auction next year will be enough to fund the buildout, said Fraser. “FirstNet needs to leverage state and local governments such as public safety radio sites, but then there are questions of how local governments will get compensated or how to circumvent the local zoning process,” he said. “States need to continue to communicate with FirstNet or there could be a communications breakdown.”